Elmore Leonard

Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures. Among his best-known works are ''Hombre'', ''Swag'', ''City Primeval'', ''LaBrava'', ''Glitz'', ''Freaky Deaky'', ''Get Shorty'', ''Rum Punch'', ''Out of Sight'' and ''Tishomingo Blues''.

Leonard's short story "Three-Ten to Yuma" was adapted as ''3:10 to Yuma'', which was remade in 2007. ''Rum Punch'' was adapted as the Quentin Tarantino film ''Jackie Brown'' (1997). His writings were also the basis for ''The Tall T'', as well as the FX television series ''Justified'' and ''Justified: City Primeval''. Among other honors, he won the 2009 Pen Lifetime Award and the 2012 Medal For Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Anthony Lane wrote that Leonard

was hailed as one of the best crime writers in the land. High praise, but not quite high enough, and some way off the mark. He was one of the best writers, and he happened to write about crime. Even that is not entirely accurate. It's true that his novels (more than forty of them, with another left unfinished at his death) enjoyed the company of criminals and of those who tried to stop them in their tracks. This was seldom hard, since, as Leonard delighted in showing us, crime—more than anything, even politics—allows men of all ages to disport themselves across the full range of human ineptitude. Boy, do they screw up.

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